the worst song ever has to be "bye bye miss american pie "'. i literally get nauseous ever time i hear it. lgm says "jump" by van halen. harris says worst song every "you light up my life." we always want to hear from you. log onto cnn.com/kyra. tony, worst song ever? >> something from the star land vocal band, maybe england dan and john ford collie. >> give me a little something. i'm trying to figure out dat beat from d.j. pauly d. don't remember it. good morning, everyone. let's keep the conversation going. send us some suggestions as to the worst song ever. the big stories for wednesday, the 15th of september, the gop

strategy to retake control of congress in doubt today. a tea party candidate wins big in delaware despite firm opposition from the republican establishment. federal workers who report violations may be putting their careers on the line. the government advocate for whistle blowers cuesed of retribution. >> it is set up to make sure whistle blowers do not blow the whistle. i am talking live this hour with former u.s. senator sam nunn. good morning, everyone. those stories and your comments right here right now in the cnn newsroom. how about a cup of tea with your primary election results? ahead of the vote, we've highlighted some of the hot races to watch, delaware, new hampshire, new york. we begin with delaware and a big win for the tea party.

plit political commentator christine o'donnell defeated congressman mike castle in the u.s. senate primary. >> there are a lot of people who are rallying behind me who are frustrated that the republican party has lost its way. what you see in this race, and then especially the attitude after our win, is that, you know, the so-called leers have been proven wrong, got behind a candidate who didn't even support our party principles, supported the liberals nearly 70% of the time some years, and they chose to get behind him because they were taking the easy way out and now they underestimated the power of we the people, and the strength and determination that we have to take back our country, and, you know, their credibility has been shot. >> okay, and still too close to call in new hampshire, the candidate backed by local tea party groups is locked into a tight race with the republican party candidate. we will continue to follow the

results here as we get close to a decision in that race. in new york, veteran congressman charles rangel won while facing ethics questions. he fended off five challengers, including the son of the late congressman adam clayton powell. he got late help from the former president clinton in the form of robocalls. let's look at the big picture with candy crowley. she led a discussion of what the results suggests about the november midterms. >> i know we're not talking about your side of the hill, as we say, but i have to get your impressions on what last night meant. first, let's talk about what it meant for democrats. congressman van holen, what does the win -- is it clearly a big night for the tea party. what's the message for democrats in those victories? >> well, candy, we saw similar patterns in the house races as the delaware senate race and the

new york's governor's race. i think voters are going to look at this, and it's going to be a wakeup call because we just saw the complete purchasing of moderates and independents out of the republican party. mike castle has been a voice of moderation. he's been a pragmatist and someone who is willing to work across party lines, and what happened in delaware just sent a message that there is no room, no room at all for moderation and independence in the republican party, and i think that's going to be a wakeup call to voters in the swing districts because swing district voters are moderate voters, the independent voters, and they're going to see this huge swing to the right, and say we don't want to go way over there. >> congressman, you were one of those listed in a tea party press release today of those that were backed by the tea party, so i know you have friendly and good relationships with those who identify themselves as tea partiers, but

you know in politics, perception is everything, and i assume you will argue theses are not right wing extremisextremists, but do all have a perception problem with some of your candidates? >> look, candy, there's a party that has a problem out there today, and, frankly, it's the democratic party on capitol hill, and it's this administration. the american people are tired of the borrowing and the spending and the bailouts and it takeovers, and they're looking for men and women all over the country that are willing to come to washington, d.c. and rein in this federal government. christine o'donnell ran a competitive primary and won yesterday and i have every confidence that upbeat, positive mainstream conservative message you saw her delivering here this morning on cnn and delivered all over delaware is going to continue to resonate. for those who are willing to

write off this race now, i think, electing christine o'donnell in delaware, a republican senator in delaware is about as crazy as electing a republican senator in massachusetts. who would have thunk it? the american people want change. they don't want more of the same runaway federal spending that characterized the last administration and gone on steroids in this administration and they want people to come to washington, d.c. and bring that change about. >> let me just ask you -- and a lot of republicans have said, these are not some sort of extremists. these are mainstream republicans, mainstream americans. is it mainstream to want to overturn health care reform? is that a mainstream position for you? >> candy, come on out to indiana and walk up and down the streets of muncie and ask people whether they agree with me that we need to repeal obama-care lock stock

and barrel. they don't want a government takeover of health care. there's a broad and decisive majority in this country of republicans, independents and democrats who want to scrap the bill and start over. you bet, i think that's a mainstream position. the american people are saying enough is enough to the spending, the deficits, the debt, the takeovers, the bailouts. i think christine's message is emblem attic of that. i think it's why the american people are being drawn to these good candidates. other big stories -- california may soon require automatic or remote controlled shutoff values on natural gas lines. intense heat kept firefighters from a manual shutoff valve last friday. one family had jewelriry stolen, and thieves also took passports, social security cars and the family's checkbook.

>> we were so glad to be able to come back to our house after having anxiously waited for three days. we were really glad to find out our house was in relatively good shape and then all of a sudden, i hear jody already screaming about how we've been robbed. outgoing bp boss tony hey word is answering question for parliament. the energy committee wants to know if the rigs might meet safety regulations and if a deepwater horizon disaster could happen off britain shores. he is not expected to face the roasting he got in u.s. congress last june. a special envoy from pakistan is on his first visit to the region. richard holbrooke is in southern pakistan today. the disaster impacted one-fifth of the country. he will find out what pakistan needs as it transitions from maevs relief to long-term

recovery and reconstruction. in grade school, you learn to tell the truth. what happens when delling the truth gets you in trouble or fired? there is a backlash against whistle blowers. we have two hurricanes plus a tropical storm we are tracking. one will have an impact, and it's a monster of a storm. we'll have the latest coming up with your forecast.

so how much do you trust the government? not very much, according to a new poll in the cnn opinion research corporation survey. only 25% say they trust the government to do the right thing all or most of the time. 66% say some of the time, and 8% say never. government whistle blowers risk their careers to try and do what is right. so what happens when the office they trust to protect them doesn't? senior correspondent allan chernoff reports on a system critics say is broken and

dysfunctional. >> reporter: former federal aviation safety inspector richard was fired after reporting safety issues a decade ago that he claims the faa wanted to keep quiet. he says his supervisor also tried to prevent him from earning this aviation inspection certificate and then terminated him in late 2002, falsely claiming he had lied on his certificate application. you got another certification? >> right. >> reporter: to improve your expertise in safety? >> yes. >> reporter: and you are saying you were fired as a result? >> yes, that's true and i have been trying to clear my name for seven years now. it's affected my livelihood and my reputation, all because i did my job. >> reporter: we asked the faa to comment on his dismissal, and they declined. to try to get his job back, he turned to the u.s. office of

special counsel. a presidential appointee, he is supposed to help whistle blowers. six times he has filed complaints with the office of special counsel, but those complaints have gone nowhere, advocates for whistle blowers say that's typical. >> the system is really set up to make sure whistle blowers do not blow the whistle. >> reporter: scott block is the last person to have been u.s. special counsel, a job he held when wirokski started filing complaints. >> he was fired and recently pled guilty to lying to congress about deleting files from his commuter at a time when he was the subject of a federal investigation as to whether he retaliated against his own employees and dismissed whistle-blower cases without adequate examinations. >> reporter: scott block wasn't

getting his agency to do the investigations into allegations. they were just closing casing without doing investigations. >> reporter: the office of special counsel says it flatly rejected bryant's chargeses. since block lef the office, osc has substantiated a number of whistle-blower complaints. president obama has never appointed a new u.s. special counsel even though early on in his career he worked on behalf of government employees who exposed fraud. while the president has failed to appoint a new special counsel, the white house has been working on a bill with congress that would give whistle blowers more protection. the u.s. office of special counsel says quote we continue to conduct full and fair investigations and seek corrective and disciplinary actions when appropriate. >> so, it seems ironic that the president himself represented a

whistle-blower when in private practice but hasn't appointed a new special counsel. any explanation from the administration on this? >> reporter: it's incredibly ironic. the president had actually represented somebody back in illinois and written a brief. the case went all of the way to the supreme court, but still he has yet to actually name a special counsel. people are kind of scratching their heads, people who are supporting the whistle blowers. they're wondering what's up, and apparently there have been some possible nominees but they've been scratched so we are waiting on that. >> scott block, the former special counsel pled guilty to lying to congress. when is he going to be sentenced, and is he likely to serve prison time? >> reporter: he had been scheduled to be sentenced last week. now, there's a plea deal, and it seems based on the arguments presented in court last week that the plea deal calls for him

to just get probation, no prison time. now, there was an argument before the judge between the attorneys as to whether or not the judge is actually able to do that, able just give him probation, so now the judge has asked for written briefs on that very issue. she's supposed to get those later this month, on september 24th, and then set a sentencing date, but it is definitely possible here that scott block is going to walk with no prison time. >> wow, allan chernoff, thank you. a business is coming back, lending is picking up, keeping a double-dip recession at bay for now. where are we on the markets? are we in positive territory? we are. up 15 points. we'll follow the numbers throughout the day for you right here in the cnn newsroom. ♪ just one bite onsa rlof d

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let's see here. let's get everyone to cnnmoney.com and take a look at what we have here as the lead story. bush tax cuts, what you need to know. the noise from the debate in washington is deafening. we brought you some of that. cover your ears and keep reading. answers to five common questions, the lead story at cnnmoney.com. we are in positive territory today. a little pop here. up 23 points. the nasdaq is -- let's just call it flat. there is a lot of talk about a double-dip recession.

everyone wants to know if the economy is going to take a turn for the worst. let's take a look at the data. this month the numbers have been pretty good. alison kosic is at the new york stock exchange with details for us. i guess the question is, has the mood on the street changed? >> it really has, tony. the mood on the floor of the new york stock exchange is more optimistic. we haven't heard talk about a double-dip recession this month but besides the feeling of optimism, we're seeing numbers that it's less likely we will fall back. stocks have been rallying. the dow is up 5% in september. usually september is one of the most brutal months for wall street, nasdaq is it up 8%, and the s&p 500 is up 7% as well. stocks are up because the economic reports are better. the manufacturing sector is growing, albeit very slowly.

initial jobless claims don't fall a bit, and the trade gap is narrowing, which could spell growth when we get the gdp report at the end of month. retail sales are growing. they see consumers out there spending their money. >> can we rule out the talk about -- two things, can we pipe down on the talk of the double dip? can we also rule out the possibility of a double dip? >> it's funny. it depends on who you talk to. warren buffett says whether not have a double-dip recession at all, business is coming back, lending is picking up, and some lenders are picking up their outlook for the future. they are predicting gdp this quarter to be stronger than expected, but some traders say, we're looking at the election, policy changes, we're confident we will not fall back into a

recession. at the same time, another trader comes up and says we could fall back into a recession because the housing sector is in it shambles, and the unemployment. it was typically the housing sector that pulled us out of recessions, and we're still seeing that struggle. we have those head winds to contend with. >> very good. are you a fan of denz. washington? >> i am. >> he's going to be on the program next hour. you better watch. >> i will, i will. >> denzel washington joining me in the noon hour to talk about a new boys and girls clubs initiative to help kids graduate. denz. credits his hometown club for motivating him to succeed. that's in the noon hour of cnn newsroom. my passion for food. i saw a gap in the market for a fresh culinary brand and launched behindtheburner.com. we create and broadcast content and then distribute it across tv, the web, and via mobile. i even use the web to get paid. with acceptpay from american express open,

we now invoice advertisers and receive payments digitally. and i get paid on average three weeks faster. booming is never looking for a check in the mail. because it's already in my email.

top stories, now, tea party backed candidate christine o'donnell wins the republican senate primary in delaware. the gop establishment supported congressman mike castle for the nomination. an air traffic controller on a personal phone gets part of the blame for last summer's mid-air collision over the hudson river. nine people were killed when a hospital slammed into a small plane. they also blamed the flight rules for pilots in the hudson corridor. sarah shourd is getting medical tests in oman today. shourd's mother says her daughter has a lump in her breast. he left two friends behind in an iranian prison. >> i can't wait to hold my son and give him a hug. that's one of those things. i will, extremely happy to see

sarah, but i will be extremely happy to see shane and josh, too. more top stories in 20 minutes.

well, you don't need me to toss to jacqui jeras. you just need jacqui. we have a couple of -- julia. >> a few, not a couple. >> yeah, the waves, and the training and the storms. take it away. >> we're in the thick of it. three storms, all of which are rather powerful and all of which are probably going to be hurricanes ultimately if they are not already there. we start out with karl because karl made land fall a couple of hours ago on the yucatan

peninsula. it's starting to weaken because it's over land, 60 miles per hour. this is moving along pretty good. rainfall totals 3 to 5 inches and max up to 8. flash flooding can be expected and power outages, and larger tree limbs could come down. this will move over the bay of campeche later tonight and into tomorrow and probably intensify again and become a hurricane. you can see the forecast track with the second land fall later this week on mexico's mainland. texas, keep a heads up in case it takes a northerly track. you might get outer bands but nothing major for you. let's talk about the other two storms. this is really interesting, i think, tony. igor a julia, both category 4 storms that are producing 135-mile-an-hour wind speed but look at the differences. igor is about twice the size. yeah, in fact, i just saw a

tweet from nasa saying this is about 550 miles wide which means it would take you about ten hours to drive across. >> man! >> ten hours, that's a long trip, my friend. julia, making the record books here today as well. it's the eastern-most category 4 storm on record, and the last time we've had two category 4s, by the way, at the same time, was 1926, and it only lasted about six hours. we're beyond the sick-hour mark right now, so nasty storms making the history books. we're only halfway through the season. no direct land fall but igor will bring rough waves to the east coast this weekend. she passionate about reducing the nuclear threat to the world. former senator sam nunn talks about the new star trek. he joins us next in the cnn newsroom. [ engine revving ] [ drums playing ]

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exclusive ion2 complex combined with activating cream helps restore collagen depleted skin. neutrogena clinical skincare is clinically tested to undo the look of a year's worth of skin aging in just 4 weeks. do-overs do exist. [ female announcer ] clinical skincare. neutrogena. #1 dermatologist recommended brand. congress focused on the economy and election, the new s.t.a.r.t. nuclear reduction treaty has gotten little attention. we're going to change that. the senate held more than a dozen hearings and briefings over the summer. the treatly did be debated and voted on tomorrow in the senate foreign relations committee. the pact limits u.s. and russia to 650 warheads and 700

intercontinental missiles. it will take support from 67 senators to ratify the treaty, a vote not expected until after the november election. sam nunn spent 24 years in the u.s. senate and is now cochairman of the nuclear threat initiative which works to reduce the global peril from nuclear weapons and joins me from new york. good to see you. thanks for your time and working it out in your schedule. we have been trying to get you on to a couple of weeks. >> thank you. >> the senate foreign relations committee is set to vote on the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty. what is your view, the overarching view of the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty? >> tony, i would start by saying that the threat has fundamentally changed since the cold war. at that time we were concerned about an invasion of europe. we were concerned about the soviet union's overwhelming conventional capability. we were concerned about a

deterrent to any kind of war with the soviet union, and, today, some of those things remain relevant, but most of them have fundamentally changed. today the u.s. and russia have a real stake in working together to avoid proliferation in the world, to prevent countries like iran and north korea from becoming nuclear powers and secure nuclear materials around the globe. so the threat has fundamentally changed and arms control was important during the cold war but it is even more important now because the united states and russia have so many threats in common and we have such a stake in basically making sure we do not lose confidence in verification, making sure that we limit the number of launches, making sure that we are credible in terms of trying to prevent proliferation around the globe. for all of those reasons, the treaty is very important, particularly on the verification bit. >> let me follow up this way.

if this agreement is that important. right now, it's just between the united states and russia. how does it help us reduce the nuclear threat from, say, iran and north korea? >> well, the united states and russia working together is important. this building confidence. that is fundamental, and that would be true with the challenges in iran and north korea. we are much more likely to get russian assistance on that, russian pressure, russian sanctions. all of those are difficult but russian leadership on nonproliferation is important, and russia securing not only its own but global nuclear materials that could be seized by terrorists all over the world is enormously important. the united states and russia need a partnership on that. when you back off it and get the details and look at the details that the united states and russia have 99% of all the nuclear weapons in the world, we have enough nuclear weapons to destroy god's universe or we can

work together to make nuclear energy a positive for for mankind. not all of that is in this treaty but the treaty is a step in the direction of recognizing how important it is for the united states and russia to work together and then to get other nations to join us, of course. >> senator, is there anything in the treaty -- because you hear this as pushback, anything that limbs u.s. missile defense capabilities? >> no. there's nothing in the treaty. the joint chiefs of staff have testified to that fact. the people in charge of the missile defense program in the pentagon have testified to that fact. secretary gates has testified to that. the russians have their own position on missile defense, and they assert certain things themselves, but that is not in the treaty. it is not binding on us. and if you get beyond the treaty itself, it's in the united states interest to work with russia on missile defense, not to give them a veto, but president reagan had that as a vision. it was perhaps premature but it

is very relevant because if we begin working with russia on missile defense we will begin to understand there is no reason to have the major ouncive force pointing at each other on hair trigger that could basically destroy each other's countries in the amount of one hour or so. we have taken all sorts of safeguards to prevent that from helping but this treaty itself is a cfc builder because without the treaty there is no verification. trust but verify remains very important with our dealings with russia and other nuclear powers. >> so we are hearing from some republican moderates -- they're on the fence on this treaty. what do you think of the analysis, and is it principled in your view or are we just talking about politics here? >> i think there's perhaps some politics when you get involved when you get within a couple of months of an election. that's why senator john kerry

and dick lugar are working together on this. i think we all ought to note that's a very positive development in partisan washington today, for two leaders to be working together. i know that senator mccain and senator leaven are working together on a number of items, including, perhaps, this. i hope senator mccain will end up voting for this. there is distrust going back to the cold war. russia has the same kind of distrust. what we have to understand is without this treaty, the distrust is going up because we have no way of verifying. with this, we have onsite inspections where required and needed, a certain amount of exchange, and all sorts of things that give mutual reassurance and allow us to move ahead and put some of the cold war great tengs behind us and that's enormously important to the security of the american people and the people in russia, and, indeed, to the global

security. that leads me to my last question. the treaties that the countries have signed over the years, s.a.l.t. one, and the treaties signed by reagan in 1987, the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty, and the treaty signed by the presidents bush. have the treaties made this country safer? >> i would say, yes, all of them have. we and the rugs have outlawed intermediate range missiles. we have also regulated and started building down missiles instead of increasing them. most people around the globe, indeed, don't know we are dramatically lower than we were ten, 15 years ago. we still have a lot of challenges where we need to work together, include, as i mentioned, securing nuclear materials around the globe. we need a breakthrough on dealing with the raugss on bio. we have not dealt with the

biological threats, which is one of the threats of the future. we also have a real need to work with them on cybersecurity as well as the chinese. we need to work on energy and climate change, and this treaty is a confidence builder. it's not going to do all of that. it's a modest step forward but a positive step forward. >> thanks for the time. thank you for finding the room in your schedule. next time, let's visit here in atlanta. >> thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> still to cup, all of that oil in the gulf had to go somewhere, right? it may be lushing at the bottom. i want a home run. he wants an out! only one of us will win. so i do everything i can... to make sure it's me! [ male announcer ] winning takes intense preparation. start with wheaties fuel! a bold honey-cinnamon crunch cereal with complex carbs, and b vitamins.

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let's get you caught up on the top stories. hurricanes igor and julia are churning through the atlantic, both expected to miss the united states. tropical storm karl is battering mexico's yucatan peninsula. another big win for the tea party movement. christine o'donnell defeated mike calf in the gop primary in new hampshire. o'donnell says she didn't hear from any of them after her win. california may soon require automatic or remote controlled shutoff values on natural gas pipelines.

intense heat from the explosion and fire in a san bruno neighborhood kept firefighters from a manual shut offvalve for two hours last friday. ken feinberg was assigned to approve claims along the gulf coast put local business owners are saying they aren't getting paid. >> they say, get your claim in so you can get a check. that never happened, and then when the new claims process took over, we had to do everything again. each time we call, we have gotten somebody different. they don't know what's going on. >> so, orange beach, alabama, pulled its city workers from bp sites for lack of payment and say they won't be back until there is a check in the bank. it has been two months since bp plugged its gushing well. where did the oil go? some researchers are looking deep down below. >> reporter: a deep water csi in

the gulf. researchers discover what they say is a substantial layer of oil in the sediment in areas near the deepwater horizon spill. the steam led by a university of georgia marine science professor canvassed an area as close as two miles from the well sbhed as far away as 80 miles. in several samples from the sea floor they found concentrations of oil seeping as muches two inches in the sediment. we are going to talk to dr. samantha joy on a research vessel east of the well head. she is on a research vessel. i asked joy about other scientists who question her findings, including those who say so much oil seeps into the gulf naturally every year some of this might not be from the deepwater horizon spill. >> there is spillage from other vessels, and leakage from pipelines and all sorts of things like that, so to find oil in the gulf of mexico either in

sediments or water column is not an unusual thing. >> reporter: how do you come to believe that the oil you found is from the gulf oil spill in the bp situation? >> we have samples that were collected in may, from many of the same sites we're sampling right now. in may this layer was not present. it was not here. this layer has developed over the past four months. >> reporter: joy concedes they won't know for sure that this oil is from the deepwater horizon spill until they chemically fingerprint it back at their labs. she discovered dead organize mitchells underneath the oily sediment. what kind of organisms are exposed to this oily. >> anything that for rages to the bottom. any fish, any invertebrate, squid, octopus, anything that is going to the bottom looking for food is going to be exposed. >> reporter: then, joy says,

that could deprive other fish up the chain from a healthy food source. an official with noaa says this doesn't necessarily contradict a study last month saying 75% of the oil from the spill captured, evaporated naturally or went into the water column. they say the oil in these samples could be part of the 25% that got away. brian todd, washington. it is they award for college football players, so why is one winner giving the trophy back? [ male announcer ] where are people with moderate to severe

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he already has a super bowl ring and now he is going for a second. reggie bush is, however, returning his heisman trophy. swi that happening? that's a trending story. ines ferre is following it. >> the heisman trophy is college football's most prestigious award, around for 75 years. no player has ever given it back n.o.w. until now. he won it in 2005, a lot has happened since then. investigators claim would-be sports agents gave bush and his family money and lots of gives when they was a trojan. bush says he doesn't want the skplags over his college years to hurt the heisman's dignity and that's why he's giving it up. he's been tweeting about it. we will show you a couple of his tweets. he says i hope kids and upcoming

youth can use this story as an example and learning tool. challenges are a part of life. now that this is behind me, i look forward to the future and winning more awards here in new orleans. whoa dat? >> he tweeted thatty. next hour, the role of online services and sex trafficking of minors. it is the focus of a house hearing today. we will bring you a live report. the great actor, denzel washington live in the cnn newsroom. we're not talking about moefbs here. he is focusing on the very real problem of kids dropping out of school. let's get to you the daily white house briefing. >> tv people better hurry up. let me do -- here we go, ladies and gentlemen, your tv people. and a radio person.

hold on. >> i think i did this 20 minutes ago, which had an 18-minute buffer on. i will wait for everyone to get seated. >> before we start, let me do a couple of -- i'll wait. just one quick scheduling announcement for tomorrow. thursday the president will host two events focusing on the administration's work to increase america's competitiveness and ensure long-term economic growth. in the morning the president's export council will meet to discuss the commitment to export promotion in the afternoon an

announcement on his expansion to educate the initiative, improve science, technology engineering and math education to better prepare students to lead in the 21st century economy. thursday's events highlight the obama's add vin mation to doubling exports in the next five years in the groundwork of leading the world in this global economy. with that -- i think they're both -- well, the second event i know those remark, the first, i presume. >> yes? >> question on tax cut. is the president laying out an issue for the election, but there seems to be a lot of decisiveness among democrats on the hill. it the president going to get democrats to bring a vote to the floor tax cuts only for the middle class aekz of elections? >> i'm not going to get into what congress may or may not decide to do in terms of how they want to bring certain things to the floor or what have you.

i will reiterate what the president has said, that we should, as you heard him say on a number of occasions last week make middle class tax cuts and not hold the middle class hostage in that to borrowing $700 billion for tax cuts for the wealthy. that's, if you listen to part of what congressman boehner said over the weekend, there appeared at least earlier in the week to be a willingness to go along with that. we would certainly hope there would be a willingness to go along with that. it appears as if that has largely been walked back to the original position of holding the middle class hostage and the price of that, the ransom price for that is $700 billion that we can't afford. >> now that president has put this issue out there in the forefront doesn't he have to take typicaler hsia in this and add to the conservative democrat loose have questions about whether this is an issue you want to take on?

>> again, look, i think the president has been clear about where his position is. look, we are a big party, and no doubt there's will be different viewpoints. just as the republican party appears to have some different viewpoints on a whole host of issues, but, look i think the president has laid out where she. whether or not this gets solved in the next couple of weeks, during this session, whether it gets kicked over to lame duck i don't know the answer to that, but i will say this -- i think there's enough overlap in -- as the president said if there's a willingness to provide the very type of center they we hear many republicans would like to provide, we can move forward on the middle class tax cuts. i think that's what the president believes we should do. >> ask about the consumer

protection agency. talk about the possibility of appointing elizabeth warren as an interim head of the agency, but there are senators on the hill, senator dodd who said in doing so you would not leg legitimize that post? does that have -- >> i this president spoke clearly and has over the past several weeks about how he views elizabeth warren. obviously this was the concept of a consumer office. something that she created. i think obviously she is among the people that the president is looking at to implement the provisions of a legislation that congress passed. i don't have any personal announcements. the president does have any personnel announcements. they could come later this week. >> an option still on table? >> i'm not going to get ahead of any announcements the president may or may not make until he

does. yes, ma'am? >> also on warren, with these reports that she might be made an interim head or might be made a counselor to the treasury secretary, are you worried that that would be seen as some kind of a half measure? especially given that she's been endorsed by the national organization of women? >> i'm not going to play hypothetical until there's a personnel announcement. i think that -- as i said a minute ago, as the president has said over the course of many weeks, i think she is, base d o the work she has done over the course of her career. the fact that she -- again, this is an idea that was borne largely by her. i think it's -- the president's right to consider her and for a role in implementing what the congress has passed. >> can i discuss a couple of -- currency questions?

>> oh. let me save you the time and point you over to treasury. so i do not -- no. i -- if you want to borrow $5, i could probably do that, but i will leave the yen and everything else to my good friends at the department of treasury. yes, sir? >> christine o'donnell who won the delaware senatorial race over the republicans's in 2008 said then senator obama was so liberal he's anti-american. does the white house have any comment on that? >> i just saw a couple of clips on that right before i came down. if i'm not mistaken that was probably an election -- she was at that time running for the same position she runs for now. right? >> i'm not sure if she was a weekend or a pundit. >> well, i think she -- read them both. if i'm not mistaken she ran in 2008 against then senator joe

biden and i think lost fairly handedly close to 2-1. i think -- look, last night showed there is a very vociferous debate going on inside the republican party for the hearts and minds of republican voters. i think if you look at what people like karl rove or people like the state gop chairman have said, the republicans in delaware nominated somebody they don't believe can win i think, in the words of the state party chair, couldn't be elected dog catcher. i think comments like that probably is what led to her losing 2-1 in delaware in 2008, and i think -- i think obviously is why you have people in the republican party structure in delaware saying that she will be

hard to elect, because her views are outside the mainstream of what people in delaware think now. >> is the white house concerned at all? a lot of the voter anger that republican incumbents have generally been feeling, will now be directed at democratic incumbents now that other than why the primaries are over, now it's general election time and a lot of this enthusiasm and a lot of this energy and a lot of this anger is going to be focused on the democratic incumbents? >> let me take this two ways. one i think you have to look at the practical implications of the anger that you just spoke about. i think there is no doubt, i don't think anybody would disagree that intraparty republican hanger has changed the complexion of a number of races at a state, at a district level. and that has real world practical implications for the outcome of what happens in november. again, last night i think -- i

think is a pretty good example, both in the congressional race and senate race in delaware that makes winning those races for are the republicans a fundamentally harder task. i will say this, jake, and i've said this -- >> delaware? >> delaware, yes. i've said this on a number of occasions in all honesty for about two years. there is -- there is -- there was two years ago, not just because of the collapse 6 something like lehman two years ago, there was a frustration in the electorate where we were economically. that frustration, i think, in many ways is still in the electorate. i -- it was -- i'd spoke about this after massachusetts. the same frustration was there and i have no doubt it continues today. we'll see what produces in

november. i remain confident as i've said that on election night we'll retain control of the house and senate, but i don't think anybody will tell you there's not a frustration particularly based on what has hatched econom happened economically and where we are in the recovery, and the president shares in some of that frustration. >> the currency question in a different way. "the washington post" reported last week that 41 white house aides owed the internal revenue service over $800,000 in back taxes. is that correct? have you been able to check that out and are they being paid? >> i don't know the answer to that. i can check. >> would we be able to get -- >> that's a currency question. >> let me -- i don't answer -- >> a second thing on what kind of advice do you think the president is getting from the general and with the rather in iraq continuing, even though it's not officially a combat, we

still have 50,000 troops there, the war in afghanistan obviously pap few weeks ago a lot 6 speculation about secretary gates' future. what's your sense and the president's sense how long he's saying? the end of the year? a lot of people are wondering because of continuity any both wars. >> let me take the second part. i do not know -- i have not heard any update on that. i would point you over to jeff and doug at the pentagon for an answer on secretary gates. o'will say this. i think secretary gates has provided an enormous amount of leadership at a time as you said in which we were involved in a war in afghanistan, and still involved in assisting in iraq. i think if you look at the steps that he and the president have talked about taking as it relates to restructuring the

pentagon, those are tremendously important, not just from a budgetary perspective, but for a readiness -- from the perspective of readiness. the debates we had about the f-22, the second engine for the f-35 obviously are very important. in terms of the first one i don't have a readout of their meeting. i know that vice president biden has spent time both in iraq and in the united states recently with the general and the general gave an update on government formation. obviously that's the biggest most pressing outstanding question about where we are in iraq. i know that the president and vice president wanted to bring the general into the oval office and thank him for his service and his commitment to what he's done for our men and women in uniform, and for our effort in iraq. i will try to get a more full -- if there was the advice -- yes, sir?

and hello again, everyone. i'm tony harris. top of the hour in the "cnn newsroom" where anything can happen. here are some of the people behind today's stories -- child sex trafficking online. disturbing reality of the internet hits home for the mother of a 12-year-old. >> she was there with a wig on she had on a purple negligee. >> reporter: your 12-year-old daughter? >> yes. >> education crisis. one-third of america's children do know graduate from high school. actor denzel washington says he wants to change that. he join us live to tell us how. you're online right now. we are, too. following what's hot. >> a lot of you are tweeting about the new tweeting interface unveiled. they're called believers. from cnn.com. justin bieber wannabes. there's a slew of them. >> oh, my. >> called wannabiebs.

>> all right. child sex slavery, commercial exploitation of children, all at issue on capitol hill next hour as a house judiciary subcommittee holds a hearing on the role of online services and sex trafficking of minors. our amber lyons investigated this problem extensively. she takes us to the home of an exploited child. >> okay. where are we headed? >> we're going upstairs to her bedroom. she's a normal 12-year-old. hannah montana, the jonas brothers. >> reporter: does she do you sleep in her bed at night? i. do. just so i can still basically have that connection. >> reporter: a mother's anguish. her 12-year-old daughter, lured away by a pimp on her way home from school. sold away and trafficked on another website. backpage.com. >> a friend of mine told me to look on craigslist and a almost

blew my mind. i really didn't believe what i saw. she was there with a wig on. she had on a purple negligee. >> reporter: your 12-year-old daughter? >> yes. and one, the other one was just her rear end. i mean, she was bent over. >> everybody wants it know when you look at a website and you see a list of prostitutes, how many of them are children? >> nobody knows what the real numbers are. >> reporter: back in june we asked craigslist to estimate the number of potentially underaged trafficking victims in its adult services ads. their answer, "effectively zero." >> that's not true. we have been able to find, locate and return home 54 missing kids on craigslist. now that is a tiny fraction of what the total scope of the problem is. we found 12 kids on backpage. >> reporter: the national center

for missing and exploited children gave us current missing child posters. all being sold for sex. there are 52 missing persons posters behind me representing 52 girls all under age 18, all missing right now. christina, monica, rachel -- and the national center for missing and exploited children says all 52 of these girl, being sex trafficked. erica, ashley, nicole. the vast majority sold on the internet. we've got white girls here. black girl it's here. hispanic girls, asian girls. the youngest girl on this wall went missing when she was 13 jeer years old. a lot of these have something in common. may be in the company of an adult male. christina may be in the company of an adult male. in this case, that adult male is most likely the pimp. >> reporter: a group based in georgia called the future not a past commissioned a study focusing on the men who try to buy sex online with underaged girls. >> we wanted to know, what's the scope of this problem in

georgia? and to me the results were staggering. 7,200 men a month buying sex from adolescent girls. like just took my breath away. >> reporter: there's no league obligation for websites to report ads that might involve underaged prostitution. backpage.com told cnn the site includes links to help users notify the national center foremissing and exploited children if they identify potential abuses. back in 2008, craigslist promised to work tirelessly in tandem with profits and agreed to report ads to national center for missing and exploited children when they seem to involve adolescents, but in a period of 15 months, craigslist only reported 132 ads. that's 132 out of more than 700,000 adult services ads that it rejected. ads that could have provided vital leads about children being bought and sold. and that 12-year-old girl we told you about at the beginning?

by chance, she called home just as we were speaking with her mother. >> you should be home. with your family. with your friends. with the people that love you. >> reporter: the first time they'd spoken in the two weeks since the little girl vanished. police rescued the 12-year-old girl and arrested a 42-year-old man in charged him with human trafficking. one girl rescued out of thousands. >> please, step away. so amber lyons joining us from washington. i have two small children myself. that's a tough story to watch. what are we going to see? what is likely to come out of this committee hearing coming up next hour? >> reporter: well, tony, this is going to be very interesting for a lot of people following this craigslist story. representatives from craigslist testifying before the representatives. not craig himself but a representative dealing with law enforcement and customer relations. this could bent first time craigslist really breaks its silence why it shut down the

adult services section, and as to if this is a permanent change. also, you better bet there's going to be representatives in there drilling craigslist as to how they've been monitoring these ads and why they didn't report more as we showed you there in that piece, tony. >> yeah. amazing that the daughter calls as you're talking to mom. that -- boy. >> reporter: i know. can you believe of that? >> no. >> reporter: we sitting there. the camera rolling, all of a sudden the daughter's on the phone and we are able to ask her kwi, get some information that was later passed on to law enforcement and they rescued her later that afternoon, thank goodness. of those things. sleaze 12 years old. how many more girls are there out there like her? >> a lot. good luck on that story. and girls from mexico also being sold for sex here in the united states. cnn senior latin affairs begins a two-part series two and 2:00 and 4:00 on cnn's "rick's list."

and today at 4:00 he'll join us. the primary elections, the tea party versus the gop establishment candidates and tea party activists scored a big win in delaware. their candidate christine o'donnell defeated republican mike castle in the u.s. senate primary. democrats say the win could held them hold on to the senate seat, but o'donnell says she will win in november with or without support from the republican party. >> there are a lot of people who are rallying behind me who are frustrated has the republican party has lost its way. what you see in this race and then especially the attitude after our win is that, you know, the so-called leaders have been proven wrong. they got behind a candidate who didn't even support our party principles. supported the liberals nearly 70% of the time some years, and they chose to get behind him, because they were taking the easy way out, and now they underestimated the power of we the people and the strength and

the derman thatermination that to take back our country. their credibility's been shot. >> in new york, veteran congressman charles rangel managed to win despite facing ethic charges. he beat the young congressman adam clayton powell. rangel got last-minute help from former president bill clinton in the form of rogue oh calls. actor denzel washington focusing on the real problem of kids dropping ow school. he joins me live to sdaus new initiative to help at-risk youngsters. denzel. right there. first, though, our random moment in 90 seconds. [ male announcer ] mix it.

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another crazy one. a face from the past. our random moment of the day. and uncovering a roman mask buried in great britain. take a look. he did it with the -- one of throws metal detectors you see folks on the beaches with. yeah. the relic may bring more than a half million dollars at auction. kristy's defines the find as extraordinary metal work and its zenith. another extraordinary random moment. [ wind howling ]

[ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications. so they can focus on building amazing bikes. with xerox, you're ready for real business. the growing problem of high school dropouts. a full 30% of the nation's students do not graduate from high school. it is even worse for black males. 53% of them don't get their high

school diplomas. the boys and girls clubs of america launching a new program to help kids stay in school. its spokesman for some 15, 16 didn't-16 -- 18 years, denzel washington spent many years at the boys and girls club and he joins us from washington along with mona dixon. denzel i was going to introduce mona, but i'll have you introduce mona and then tell us why you're advocating for young people like her? >> for mona dixon just -- how are you, first of all? >> great. >> very good. just anourcnounced as the youth the year for 2010-2011. she's a freshman at arizona state university. she is a longtime member of the boys and girls club, and she can tell you a little bit -- tell them a little bit about your history, where you've come from and what you've been doing. >> well, i grew up from streets

to shelters and what i finally moved to tempe, arizona i joined the boys and girls club and a stranger paid my fee for me and it basically changed my life. >> i know she doesn't have an earpiece. ask the question how she was able to find her way from those very difficult beginnings? >> they warrant it know how you found your way from those very difficult beginnings to the boys and girls club? >> i had a lot of mentors and i also had tern topersonal tutor, guy who played a father figure in my role -- re, in m well, in and that helps me be successful. >> talk about the dropout rate. 90% of boys and girls club members graduate from the high school and we're working on that other 10%. that's the focus of our initiative to make sure that each and every child has the opportunity to graduate from

high school. ramona graduated with a 3.9 -- >> 3.92. >> 3.92 figure. >> we could use that right here in the "newsroom." denzel, talk about the new initiative. the program is "be great. graduate." my question is why are you doing this? it's a bake question, but there's a motivation in this for you. what has moved you to action in this area? >> well, from the time i was 6 years old i was a member of the boys and girls club. i was a counselor at the boys and girls club. i sort of started my acting career there. everything or most of what i am today i can attribute to the lessons that i learned and to the mentors that helped me at the boys and girls club. so 18 years ago i was asked to be the national spokesperson, and in those 18 years, or more specifically, in the last 10 years we doubled the number of clubs that we built and the number of members that have

joined the club. >> and i know you've been -- you started in the clubs when you were a child, but at what point in your life did the -- you know the message. the "anything is possible" message begin to resonate for you personally? >> that's a good question for ramona. at what point in your life did anything is possible moment begin to resonate? when did you feel confident and who gave thaw confidence? >> well, probably in first grade. my teacher ms. mayer, actually told me, she handed me my first harry potter book to read, that if i worked hard, that anything is possible. if i had a heart and i was very determined, then i could accomplish anything that i put my mind to. >> no coincidence that the same type of event happened for me in the boys and girls club. i talked about it earlier today, when one of the mentors there, one of the volunteers there talked to me about the smarts he

thought i had. evidently i was a good actor even then. but -- he just said to me that you can go as far as you want to go. you can do anything you want to do. and that's what the boys and girls club is all about. not just, as they say, swim and gym. the volunteers and workers that instill these positives in the lives, in the minds of young people. they talk about role models and they talk about athletes or actors all of that, but in my community in my town, the role models were the people that i could see every day and see how they operate, and i would emulate the way that they functioned. >> so i am transporting you, mr. washington, because i have the power to do that. i am transporting you right now into a classroom. okay? >> okay. >> stay with me. full of at-risk young people. what is your message to those young people? some of whom still say, i don't need college. i'll jump into the rap game. you know what, mr. denzel

washington i will become a production assistant on one of your movies and work my way up through my wits, my guile, my work ethic. what is your message to those young people who say, i don't need college. i don't need higher education, i don't need to get out of high school? >> like i tell my children. it's one thing to make money. it's another thing to know how to count it. okay? so without math -- ramona what do you think? what would you say to young people that don't feel they need school? they say, oh i'm going to be a rapper, a basketball star, i don't need an education what would you say to them? >> if you want to be a sports player you never know. when you break your leg, what's your rebound? academics, if you have an education that will always be there for you. you have a degree, can't nobody take from you that. and that's what i would say to them. >> well -- >> there you go. >> that's perfect. hey, denzel, will you pass along

our thanks and congratulations to ramona, and one other thing, man. that's a great job by you of not only taking my questions, moving the questions to ramona. i don't know. you got any time available? >> i majored in drama and journalism. >> you got me any room in your schedule for primetime? just a thought. >> no. i like my day job. >> a pretty good one. denzel, thanks for your time. good to see you again after all of these years. take care. chad myers tracking hurricanes. he's next in the "cnn newsroom." financing their fleet, sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america. after 25 years in the aviation business, i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? take one of the big ones out? nah.

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top stories. a personal phone conversation by an air traffic controller likely kringted to the cause of a deadly collision over the hudson river last year. that finding by the ntsb. nine people killed in the collision between a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter. joshgs outgoing bp chief executive tony hayward gets grilled in london. members of parliament questioned hayward about his company the response to the oil disaster in the gulf of mexico. safety issues, a key part of today's hearing. >> taking all issues very seriously. i do not believe the issues reported this morning point to any fundamental weakness in our north sea operations. we have a very strong track record in the north sea. it is better than the industry average. we have seen major improvements in the course of the last two

years. bp spims, which are a good indicator of safety performance in terms of integrity performed by 20% a. longtime nbc news correspondent edwin neuman has died. no word yet on the cause of death. neuman was 91. more top stories in 20 minutes. get you to the cnn headquarters. chad myers is there. really on fire, the activity in the gulf. where do you want to start? >> start with the three. three storms. the first time very many year, like 70, we've had storms this powerful side-by-side. because typically, tony, when you get them they're not that far apart from each other and one will steal the warm water and mix it you all up. this is far enough away. there's julia. there's igor, both at 135 right now. okay, so here's africa. here are the i lpds.

there's puerto rico, there's the u.s. they are all still forecast, no question about it, to turn to the north, and away. the problem is, that's bermuda. so bermuda you have to watch that especially. any honeymoons to bermuda, definitely watch that as well. karl made landfall south of near to cancun. and here's belize, the center of it right about there coming onshore. do you know the yucatan peninsula has no rivers? i did not know that. no rivers on the yucatan peninsula. the water goes straight down underground in these big, round holes in the ground. all the water goes down and all the water that hits the ground in rain goes underground to underground rivers so you can float on some of these underground rivers. actually take little sea things or floaties dwn in these underground rivers. they're real. this is our category 4 igor. going to miss the u.s. miss bermuda by a lot.

here's karl. karl continues across the peninsula. regaining strength. becomes a hurricane and then hits the coast of mexico. now, that is brownsville. that would be south padre island. so well south of any potential category 1 or 2 landfall in the u.s. it would literally have to go against all odds and against all models to get there. yeah. yeah, yeah. >> it still could rain. >> appreciate it. promoted to the rank of national hero. his story, and it is an amazing one coming up for you in the "cnn newsroom."

so picture this. your home is engulfed in a fireball and when you move back in, your home is looted. it's been happening in california. the story from cnn affiliate. >> reporter: slowing a san bruno police officer the room where is someone had broken into the house and stolen small but irreplaceable items. like the ring from her grandmother. >> it's an heirloom. >> piece of jewelry. hard to put a value on that. >> reporter: they talk about the emotional roller coaster they've been riding on since thursdayal explosion. >> we are already so glad just to come back to our house. having anxiously waited for three days. so we were really glad to find that our house was in relatively good shape and all of a sudden i hear joetdy screaming how we've been robbed.

so from there it was really just an awful feeling. just being on pins and needles the whole time, the whole time since the explosion happened and waiting, and then we get back, finally get back in our house and then we have this happen to us. you know? it's just an additional thing. just unbelievable. >> reporter: they both had birthdays and their anniversary with the last month. so the burglar was able to take gift cards and gift certificates along with jewelry and small items that could be carried out easily. worrying them the most, the items that can lead to identity theft. >> they took our whole family's pass ports. mine, my husband's, all of our children, both of our social security cards. we had wallets with leftover credit cards and things. >> this guy potentially has all of our identity. >> my checkbook. yeah. everything. >> reporter: san bruno police said they received a few other

reports of burglaries in the surrounding areas but have not linked this to any others pending their investigation. okay. the president says small businesses can be a key to jump-starting the economy. i apologize i didn't get a cue. you may be a little surprised by one entrepreneurs take on unemployment insurance i. think as far as unemployment extensions go, they could limit the amount of extensions they put. >> we will check in with poppy harlow in new york for help for small business owners. piggy: weeeeeee, weeeeeee, weeeeeee, weeeee weeeeeeee. mom: pix. ...maxwell! mom: you're home. piy:h,ol, anks mrs. a.

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jack, come on. go to cnnmoney.com. the pick story, big banner story. this is terrific. the money team delivers again. bush tax cuts. what you need to know of the noise from the debate in washington deafening. curve are your ears and keep reading. this is ideal, because the debate can be a little confusing. right? we're trying to cut through it as best we can here in the "cnn newsroom." if you need additional information, we all do, go to cnnmoney.com. terrific, terrific piece here. three hours into the trading day, look at the dow. off session high, up 32 points. not bad. the nasdaq reversing an early

losing trend. in positive territory now. up a 8 points. got to tell you, we hear president obama say this all the time. you've heard it. i've heard it. small businesses create two out of every three jobs in the country. so the economic recovery depends on small businesses. right? poppy harlow joining us from new york. so, poppy, small businesses. here's the question. do they believe they're getting what they need to survive and thrive from the government? >> it's a great question. they are sort of the life blood of this economy and as the president says, if we're going to get the economy back on track you have to get the small businesses flourishing again. hiring again. some are doing better than others. after we heard the president last week make that big announcement saying he wants congress to approve $350 billion in initial, in additional aid for big and small companies we decided to go to this company. a family-owned manufacturing company in new jersey and talk to them about how they're doing, what help they've gotten from the government what more help they might need and most

interestingly you'll hear at the end of the conversation what they think the government should stop doing. take a listen. >> reporter: how hard is it to run a small business right now? >> it's not something that you can just take a back seat on. you have to always be involved in every aspect of the business. how much more do you have to do? this is your last box? >> reporter: we hear so often, nothing is made in america anymore. not true. your company makes -- >> yep. made in america. materials purchased in america, and canada, and our work force, our local people, we have the opportunity to add more jobs locally. >> reporter: the president's latest plan, a $200 billion tax break for businesses. is that what small businesses need right now? >> we need anything we can get. i would look into additional

equipment to replace the equipment we have now. >> reporter: would that mean hiring more workers? >> it would. allow us to put on a surnt shift. we currently have about 27 employees now. i hope to have 50 with the next two years. modernize our production lines and get into a larger building. >> reporter: what do you think the government could do that it's not doing for small businesses? >> i think that as far as unemployment extensions go, they could limit the amount of extensions they put. we've had a help wanted sign out front for probably six months. people come in, fill out applications, but ultimately we end up just signing their slip that they've been here, that they've looked for a job. >> reporter: to get unemployment benefits? >> absolutely. they're telling me they're happy with the unemployment benefits they're receiving now and maybe they end they'll consider it. there has to be a point in time when somebody starts fresh, gets back into a company, starting

even if it's less than they were making before, because there's plenty of upward mobility in the my company. it you're an aggressive, hard-working perp, there's plenty of tipts opportunities for you. >> the harsh reality people don't want to talk publicly about. not the norm but something this business is seeing. that there are people out there's that don't have job, sign my unemployment paper. when he calls them for a second interview. no thanks, i'd rather be on unemployment. >> yikes. something struck me as i was watching your piece. your small business owner is talking about expanding the business, could use help, equipment, this that and the other, if i can get more equipment, expand, do a second shift. isn't that traditionally the role of the bank? has he tried to go and get a loan from a bank to buy the equipment to expand his business to add that second shift? >> reporter: a great point. this is a capitalist society. right? the government is not going to pay for every expansion you

want. they did get a big small business loan and told me lending is looking better. credit is more open. he thinks he can get a small business loan through his local bank. he's going to work on that. they're talking about move, putting a night shift, going from 27 to 50 workers. yes, this is a company that thinks they can get the credit for a small business. the whole team looked at, this is a rare example of a small business. it seeing that, since the second quarter of 2008 we've seen small business loans drop 18%. still struggling. for him, though, a little more positive outlook. >> good. poppy good to see you. as always. >> you, too. >> thank you. a new category 4 storm is out there and karl has now may landfall. back in a moment here in the "cnn newsroom." i could go to quickenloans.com and sign all of the paper work i needed to take care of. and it didn't have to be between 9 and 5 -- which doesn't always work for me. the people at quicken loans really care. it was nice to being able to call them whenever i needed to answer questions.

they were on it. they were on top of everything. quicken loans made everything super convenient and easy. so the fact that they could work with my schedule was just wonderful. that's why i love quicken loans! ♪

got to tell you, really excited about bringing you this story today. on october 6th, staff sergeant salvador will become the living recipient of the pleddal of honor since the vietnam war. the sergeant is holding a videoconference with reporters now in italy. let's tune in. >> we're asking for your

reactions to last week. >> i'm sorry. i didn't hear you. my -- this last week has been definitely a wild and crazy ride. it's been exciting. it's been, i'm a regular line soldier. so this is a new world sitting here under the lights, in the field with cameras pointed on us talking with a little secret earpiece. it's definitely interesting and exciting. >> i'm with "the washington post." have you had some time to reflect? does it seem surreal? what emotions can you describe since the time the ambush versus now, sitting there with lights and an earpiece with your wife? have you been sleeping much?

running still on adrenaline? what's the emotions you've been going through, sir? >> this whole process has been, from the time i actually knew that they were going to put me in for the medal of honor to now, it's almost been three years now. so that's not something that i really thought about until this last week. as far as emotions after finding out about that i'm going to receive the medal of honor, it's very -- it's bittersweet, because it's such a huge, huge honor, and right now the 173rd's deployed and they are doing the same thing they did, everything that's asked of them in afghanistan all over again, and that's where a lot of my friends are right now. so for me to fully you know,

accept this, i have to have everyone who's been by me every time i needed them, and that's really my brothers in arms and some of them are out of the army now and some are in afghanistan now, and -- it's emotional and it's great all of this is great. but it does bring back, then, you know, a lot of memories of all the people that i would love to share this moment with, and i'm just not going to have that opportunity because they're no longer with us, and they gave everything for their country and in doing that, we're not going to be able to enjoy this together. >> from the national post. with the president's panes in virginia on monday in a suburban backyard for an hour and a half he took questions from the residents of this neighborhood. not once in those 90 minutes was the war with afghanistan, was

iraq, was the military ever mentioned either by the president or any of about 20 people who asked him questions. how do each of you view this apparent lack of interest or weariness with what's happening there? >> i think for a lack of interest or weariness for all the people who didn't speak about it or think about it, i think there's millions more americans that really do understand what the american soldier is going through, and i'm not doing it right now. i'm still a soldier, but at the same time, i'm proud. i'm so proud to say i'm with the 173rd. i am stoked that i can say, i'm with the rock. battle hard. i'm proud right now of being on the attachment team, serving and they're out in doing it again. and if other people don't know, well, hopefully they'll listen to this and they'll remember that there's men and women out there every single day giving

everything for their country. >> you have an answer, a reaction to that? >> i'm sorry. i didn't larry you again. >> i was asking jenny the same question. how she viewed this apparent or possible disinterest or lack of interest on the part of many people here. >> i feel the same way that sal does. i mean it goes to show just while sal was deployed and i would, you know -- call family, call friends, talk to people. just hearing those -- those that were aware of things and those that weren't aware of thing, it's just kind of how sometimes it happens, and you just have to keep thinking that there's more people out in that are aware of it than maybe you're talking to. you just have to keep that in mind, and that hopefully people that are aware of it will spread

the awareness and hope fzly this award will spread the awareness as well to those people. >> this is courtney from nbc news. i wanted to bring you back to your answer to dana's question, when you mentioned that this award really is bittersweet to you. have you spoken to any of the other soldiers who were with you that night and then do you still keep in touch with the family members of any of the soldiers or friends who were lost that night? have any had any reaction, reached out to you since the announcement offering any feelings about your honor somewhere. >> i talked with my squad leader at the time who was there that night. staff sergeant gallardo. he gave me a call from afghanistan. one of the soldiers out there just doing it again, and he just told me that he's there for me, and he's proud of me, and he's

happy. he's happy for me, and this means a lot to the guys. and honestly, hearing him say that, to me, someone i look up to telling me this, it means a lot to me and especially that he can say that from the guy, too, that i think you know, are the heroes right now. they're out there fighting for the united states while i'm just sitting here. as far as bittersweet and speaking to the families of the soldiers that were lost that night, i keep in touch with josh brennan's father. he's a real stand-up guy. i like mike a lot. we talk here and there, off and on, and he's -- he's expressed his gratitude to me, which, you know, that's kind of a hard one to stomach, because that's still

a loss. i'm glad that we could bring josh back, but i wish it was under different circumstances. we actually -- we got married, he got married -- >> married last november. perfect. leave up that picture as we explain to you why the staff sergeant is receiving this high honor. in october 2007 staff sergeant giunta ran into a taliban ambush to rescue two american soldiers. insurgents were dragging away one of the soldiers critically wounded. the staff sergeant rushed in, took out one of the taliban fighters and sent the other one running for his life. and apparently we don't have it now, but the top of this conference call was pretty emotional stuff. staff sergeant giunta is the eighth person to receive the medal of honor. it is the military's highest

award for service in afghanistan and iraq. let's take a break. you're in the "cnn newsroom." schedule no meetings. hold all your phone calls. for the next hour, there will be no agenda. marie callender's invites you back to lunch, with a new line of fresh recipes. like chicken teriyaki with crisp water chestnuts. it steams to perfection in minutes, giving the fresh flavors and textures of a homemade meal. marie's new steamed meals. it's time to savor.

all right. time for your cnn updates. dana bash joining us live from washington, d.c. good to see you. what's crossing now? >> reporter: good to see you. about to go up on our ticker an interview i just did down the hall moments ago with jim demint. political watchers know who he

is and the splash he helped make in delaware. he is a republican senator. very conservative and he has one by one been going through the republican primary battles and funding and pushing for what many in the establishment, republican establishment, call french candidates who have won. there have been a lot of people who are not very happy with him, because christine o'donnell, who he backed early won in delaware last night because many republicans fear they'll lose that seat and perhaps lose their chance at the majority. i asked him about that just moments ago. >> reporter: it's hard to not see that everything that you've done in this campaign season has been to back candidates that defy the gop establishment. you're trying to send a message to the gop establishment? >> the gop establishment is out. and what we're going to do is help the american people take back their government, and i hope the republican party will be the party that carries that banner. because what people are saying this year is what we say we believe. less government, less spending,

less debt, less government takeovers, that's what people are sayingy saying all over the country. democrat, independents. >> reporter: i asked if that included mitch mcconnell, part of the establishment. he said he does not think so, tony, but he admitted although he thinks christine o'donnell can win the general election in delaware, he admitted it is going to be harder for her to do that but he's going to help her try. speaking of the establish, number two on the ticker, the man in charge of electing republicans. john cornyn, issued a statement sounding kum ba yah court, iowa call it, saying they do strongly support christine o'donnell and that she is something that they will get behind. they're going to give a small amount of money, $42,000 to her campaign. i also just interviewed him moments ago, and he said that, look, he understands that there is a message to people like him in the republican establishment. from with the party. this is not the first time that

delaware before that kentucky, alaska, and colorado, that his candidate has not been chosen. they understand that, and that's why you feel, you see this on the ticker, many different items, you feel it in congress, senators in the republican party are a little bit concerned. >> dana, good to see pup appreciate it. and your next political update in one hour for the latest political news. just go cnnpolitics.com.

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